Rovers seek advantage over Easter says O'Kelly

01 April 2010 12:02

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Easter traditionally plays a vital role in determining the promotion and relegation issues "I would say that we'll have a much better idea of our promotion prospects after our two Easter games against Plymouth and Blackpool," said Rovers No 2 Richard O'Kelly. "But even then it probably won't all be sorted because in this division everybody is capable of beating everybody else and you never know what is going to happen."But we'd certainly like to come out of the programme with a couple of wins because we'd be right in the mix."Virtually every club in the division is playing for something, whether it is trying to get away from the bottom three or to get near the play-offs or stay there. It is probably the most competitive in England,"Our record of just one defeat in our last eight games is probably better than most of the teams involved."Our performances have been very good and even in the Newcastle game, which we lost, we played well."Neither game over Easter is going to be easy. Plymouth are down there fighting for their lives and they'll be coming up here on Saturday and giving it a right go."I think that some of their personnel since Paul Marriner has taken over. But Paul, who had just been brought in as first team coach when we lost their in early November, seems to have got a really good team spirit and everyone is working very hard for each other - not that they didn't under Paul Sturrock."After tackling one of the struggling sides tomorrow, Rovers visit fellow promotion hopefuls Blackpool on Easter Monday."I don't imagine that it will be much different from the game at the Keepmoat Stadium earlier in the season when we drew 3-3 and it was a cracking game," said O'Kelly."They have got some really talented players and Ian Holloway has got them playing an attractive brand of football."The game will see a return to Bloomfield Road of Rovers on-loan star Jay Emmanuel-Thomas.The midfielder spent time on loan with the Seasiders earlier in the season and scored a magnificent solo goal in the draw at the Keepmoat."Hopefully he can score one for us on Monday," said O'Kelly.